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Earlier this month in a somewhat “under the radar” move, Microsoft released its Office Remote for Android mobile application that allows users to start PowerPoint presentations, advance slides, see speaker notes and control an on-screen laser pointer with a touch of a finger—all directly through the free Android app.

We were excited to see Office Remote in action and decided to check it out for ourselves. After using it for a few days with a variety of presentations, we were pretty impressed with the app’s capabilities and responsiveness. Many mobile presentation apps simply replicate what a presentation remote can do in a somewhat less reliable way, but this app brought new features and capabilities that make it an easy recommendation for PowerPoint users.

Pros:

• Easy Bluetooth connection: We’ve experimented with apps that rely on network WiFi connections in the past and have had difficulty getting them to work reliably, especially on corporate networks. Office Remote relies on a Bluetooth connection between the phone and presenting computer so the pairing process went much more smoothly for us.

• Easy software install: The install process for the program was pretty simple. Download and install the Microsoft Office Remote PC Setup on the computer you’re using for the presentation and download the Office Remote app on your Android smartphone. Go through the setup on each and you’re ready to present!

• Responsiveness: We had no problems with lag during our experiments with the app and found the performance to be equally as responsive as any presentation remote we’ve used with PowerPoint.

• Jump to Slide: In addition to previewing the next slide in your presentation, you can use the app to scroll through all your slides and pick any one of them to jump to. The audience only sees the slide you were on and the slide you clicked, so it’s a much more professional way to jump to a different part of the presentation versus aggressively clicking through an entire deck with a presentation remote!

Cons:

• No horizontal mode: The app only opened and worked in vertical mode, with the forward and backward buttons taking up half the screen. We would’ve liked to see a horizontal option so the slide previews could take up more screen space. While vertical mode is probably ideal for a presenter holding the phone will walking around, horizontal mode would make it easier for a presenter to place the phone on a stand or podium during a presentation.

• No iOS support: Office Remote is currently unavailable to iPhone and iPad users. Hopefully the Android release signals Microsoft’s willingness to open this app up to more users, so perhaps iOS will be the next step.

If you’re interested in checking out the Office Remote app on your Android device, here are the relevant download links:

Computer software: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41149

Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.officeremote

Good luck and happy presenting!

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